In the Faces of Kings
by Wofl
Summary: Roy,Riza,Havoc, Fuery, Breda, and Falman are sent on an investigation. Things, however, do not turn out the way they were expected to. AU. No Spoilers.
1. 1 Infiltrate

"Falman, you two take the west entrance. Havoc, Fuery, you take the southern one." The building was nondescript, gray siding and shabby, unwashed glass set in windows that hovered ten or so feet above the ground. Not much, really, which was probably why the perpetrator had chosen the spot. Who would suspect that inside illegal alchemical experiments were being preformed?

Roy pulled a scrap of white from his pants pocket, drew the gloves onto his hand and tested them, sending a tiny spark into the crisp fall air. It flared up briefly, stinging his subordinates' eyes for an instant and died away just as quickly, leaving them a bit muddled and blinking at the sudden lack of brightness.

"Right. All set then." He glanced around at the party, gave them a nod, and then turned to Hawkeye. "You'll come with me around the front."

She nodded once, her gun sliding from her holster with a snap of a button and barely a whisper of metal on leather. A single click sounded in the empty alley outside the building as she cocked her gun and her eyes narrowed with concentration as she focused on the mission.

_Raid, restrain, retrieve. Kill no one, document all evidence. Keep it as quiet as possible._

Well, of course they would want to keep it quiet. This was, after all, a residential area. It wouldn't reflect well on the military if they were to go about disturbing the peace on a regular basis and would look even worse if such a situation were to be leaked out to the press. Nasty things would be said about the system's competence. It would be much like the Barry situation, where the government was mocked because the murders took place in their own backyard. These things were best done silently, efficiently, soldiers becoming silent stalkers, moving in like shadows and retreating before prying eyes ever knew they'd been in the first place.

They moved into position, Roy counting out three minutes to give the other two parties time to move into position. That had been the pre-allotted spell they'd set before the four men had slipped quietly around the corner of the building. Roy knew they'd be counting too, boots struggling move both hastily and inaudibly over the gravel in order to be ready to kick open the doors at the same instant that Roy did.

What they would find inside, none of them could guess; but it certainly couldn't be anything too pleasant. The quicker they got this over with and cleaned up whatever mess lay in store for them, the better. Roy flinched imperceptibly as he thought of all the paperwork this assignment would entail later in the week.

"Ten seconds, Sir." Hawkeye's voice was low and steady beside him and he nodded curtly.

_ 9, 8, 7…_

Breda panted a bit as he reached the decrepit brown door placed on the western side of the building. It had been difficult to keep up with Falman, who was both better at and more used to physical activity than Breda was. He leaned over, caught his breath, and straightened back up, giving the more seasoned officer a steady look. "Ready," he confirmed with a whisper.

_6, 5, 4… _

"Shit." Havoc hissed as his foot slid on the unsure surface beneath his feet. He flailed his arms for balance and managed to catch himself before he fell. Fuery used the time to catch up and waited for a signal from the blonde to continue. He could see the door on the south end of the building, not ten yards off from where they stood. It would take them only a few seconds to reach it, which was good, because they only had a few seconds left before they needed to be reaming their way through that door and invade the space inside.

"3, 2, 1…"

A boot, sturdy and black with big strong feet commanding it, slammed into the flimsy door. Roy could tell, from the way it splintered beneath his force, that it was made cheaply and poorly, and he was not complaining about the lack of quality. It only made his job easier.

With an audible crack, the door ripped away and slammed open, bouncing off the opposite wall. By the time it crashed back into its frame, albeit crookedly, Roy and Riza had already rushed inside, pausing inside the frame for only an instant. They had no time to let their eyes adjust to the darkness that rushed from within to greet them, lest an enemy take them by surprise while they waited to be able to see through the gloom. With one deft motion, Roy raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, a flare of light soaring up to hover in the great empty space below the ceiling.

With the brief supply of light, the Colonel quickly scanned the room. Ahah….there!

He aimed somewhere off to his right where he'd spotted a table, rotting and dry, unused, sitting in the corner. The furniture erupted into flames that were large enough to light half of the expansive room and cast the rest of it into flickering shadows.

"See anything?"

"No, Sir." Hawkeye's aim was steady as it swept the room, her amber eyes taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. She ignored the inanimate objects, eyes trained to seek out any motion, no matter how minute.

There was filth everywhere, the floors covered with dirt and grime and what looked to be feces. Here and there, Roy spotted disturbing clots of something unidentifiable. He bent down, nudging one such heap with his boot and it clouded up into the air, hovering for a few seconds before slowly settling back down, less concentrated and more spread out than before.

"Fur," he concluded, unsure of what to make of the discovery.

Hawkeye spared her commanding officer a brief glance before a motion over to the left caught and diverted her attention. She swung her gun around to face the flutter of activity, her aim sure and deadly to anyone that dared disobey the orders she barked out at them. "Stop right there!"

"Whoa! It's just me!" Havoc stepped further into the light where she could better see him. He looked a bit distraught, but then, anyone who worked in the same office as Riza knew they could never be too careful when she had a 45-caliber-guaranteed-trip-to-the-hospital aimed directly between their eyes. It was not a matter to be taken lightly.

She relaxed, a bit, when she discovered her adversary was, in fact, a comrade and her shoulders dropped an inch or so, as relaxed as she could get in an area that had yet to be deemed secure. Fuery soon followed behind Havoc, joining Roy and Riza.

"Report," the dark-haired man snapped at the lesser officer. It was harsh and demanding, business-like, exactly the type of tone a mission called for. He had no time for formalities; they were a thing best left behind in the office and saved for after hours.

"Nothing, Sir," Havoc retorted, firing off a salute. "All clear from the south."

Roy nodded and moved toward the other end of the room, others in tow. There were a few moments in which they discovered a desk filled with research notes and several file-folders with thoroughly documented experiment reports along with a disturbingly excessive amount of aborted fur dispersed upon the floor. What kind of animal could be shedding this much fur, or rather, how many animals was the man ("or woman," Hawkeye firmly reminded him) keeping in this filthy, rank area?

Even more disturbing, perhaps, was the fact that, aside from themselves, there was not one living thing in sight, no creatures at all to give cause to the material that lay, matted like some psychotic carpet, on top of the concrete.

He did not take the time to look at the research or experiments, but turned quickly to move onwards, eager to see what more there was to be discovered.

"Fuery, document these papers and gather them up. We'll need them as evidence." Roy looked at the shorter man, and he saluted, accepting the job.

"Sir!" The youngest of the men turned towards the desk, fingers trembling ever so slightly as they reached for the first of what he knew to be many papers that would need to be recorded and stacked.


	2. 2 Teeth

They'd only gone about ten feet before Hawkeye halted suddenly, back straightening and Roy could see her body tense as she jerked her attention off to the right. He stopped too, taking a few steps back as she raised her gun. 

"Lieutenant?" he questioned.

"Someone's there." She murmured, attention never leaving the point of darkness that her aim had settled upon, and Roy had no doubt that if she were to fire off into that void, she would hit her mark. "Show yourself!" Her voice raised, tone disembarking from the respectful one that she used with Roy and twisted into a cruel demand.

"Don't shoot!"

It was Breda this time, closely followed by Falman. The two entered the ring of light and Riza, once again, lowered her gun. They hurried over to their commanding officer and snapped off a salute in unison.

"Sir, if I may," and Roy could detect a slight tremble in Falman's usually steady baritone as the man spoke, "there's something I think you need to see."

"Right," Roy said, tone still leaving room for nothing but business. "Hawkeye, Havoc, with me. Breda, go cover Fuery. If anything happens, if you see or hear anything at all, fire off a warning shot." Here, he turned. "Falman, lead the way."

The men all nodded and Riza's finger never left the trigger of her gun' and they moved on, going to their assigned work without complaint. They soon left Breda and Fuery behind.

Falman led them down a narrow hallway that abruptly veered, on several occasions, off to one angle, and Roy grew more and more suspicious with every turn. This building was not as typical as it seemed from the outside. What kind of practicality could a hallway with such angles have? To Roy, there seemed no logic in such architecture.

Roy nearly ran into Falman when the man paused and was about to snap at the man to warn him next time, but Falman raised a hand, cupping his ear. "Do you hear that?"

Roy listened, ears straining to catch whatever it was Falman wanted him to hear; and drifting up from the hallway came the faintest of piteous moans. It didn't sound human, and Roy wasn't sure if that was more of a relief or not. He gave the officer a nudge in the back, prodding him to keep going (there was only enough room for them to walk single file) and Falman hastily continued onwards, pace double what it was before the brief pause.

Several hundred yards later, Falman stopped again, turning to the wall on their left and grasping a doorknob that was so grimy, Roy wasn't sure how the men had noticed it in the first place. A chortling shriek that echoed out from beneath the wooden barrier clarified how they'd found the room.

Roy frowned and Falman let the door swing open.

Inside, there was one lamp, flickering and stuttering where it sat on an overturned crate. It was, by no means, a bright light, and it made the contents of the room look that much more gruesome, the carcasses contorting into mangled tortures and bones that shrieked of crucifixion. In actuality, they were nothing more than collapsed heaps, abandoned and rotting, with no reason whatsoever as to why they were dead. None of them bore any marks upon them to indicate murder or abuse.

Roy grunted in disgust and held his nose against the overpowering stench that wafted up from the cadavers. Riza merely wrinkled her nose, not willing to compromise her aim so that she could block off the smell.

"Gross!" Havoc voiced what all four of them were thinking, and he toed one of the forms away. The dead dog rolled over with a flop, glassy eyes glinting in the lamplight.

"There're hundreds of them," Falman spoke gravely, "here in this room and in the one behind it." He pointed to a door at the far end. It stood halfway open and Roy could see the shadowed forms on the floor in that room as well.

"There are all kinds too. Looks like the guy just used whatever critters he could get his hands on. Birds, cats, dogs, mice, squirrels, I think I even saw a goat."

Roy opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, another contused screech crashed down around his ears. When it died out, the note long and strained, Roy stepped over the bodies of the dead animals carefully and made his way into the other room, where the noise had come from.

He had to shove at the door, which was partially blocked by a pot-bellied pig that made a sick scraping sound as it was pushed across the floor by the door. This room was brighter than the last, lamps hanging from the walls at semi-regular intervals, and Roy had no trouble finding the source of the commotion.

Lining the far wall was a row of cages, and within their confines paced ghastly, macabre beasts. Teeth, long and gleaming, eyes too big or too small for the faces, bodies shriveled or disfigured, and Roy wasn't sure why the things were still alive. In fact, a few were not, collapsed in one corner or another of the cage they occupied. Still others simply lay on their sides, in pain, motionless, save for the occasional twitch of a tail or shift of the head.

A few of then still looked in decent shape though, pacing back and forth behind the bars, pained and hungry and agitated. It was one of these was creating all the tumult. It had a long slender snout, tipped by a dark nose that quivered much like a rabbit's does when it senses danger. One ear stood straight up, the other flopping over and it's entire head was surrounded by the ruff of white fur around it's neck. This smoothed into a sleek brown coat, its back dappled by white spots and ending in a bushy tan tail that lashed back and forth. It stood on ungainly, thin legs, the front ones ending with dainty hooves, the back ones, ending in thick long feet. It sat unevenly on the floor, its front end raised much higher than the back. It sort of hopped more than walked, and between its ears, Roy could see the nubs of new antlers.

All four stared at the creature, incredulous at the absurdity of it. It was grotesque, the way to struggled to even move about in its confined space, its front hooves stumbling over the concrete floor. Roy took a few steps closer, leaning forward for a better look. It turned startled eyes on him and bared its teeth.

i Incisors/i Roy noted, and tried to piece together what the creature was comprised of.

Rabbit was easy enough to guess, Roy was sure of that one from the nose and the ears. It also explained the way the back legs were formed. Roy considered the spindly front legs and just growing horns. Roy settled on a deer being responsible for those features. And a young one at that, Roy concluded, taking into account the fur color and the spots on the creature's back.

But what of the teeth? And Roy couldn't place the tail or the ruff of fur. He knew it had to be some type of carnivore, judging from the sharp canines but that was as much as he could deduce.

"What do you think?" He turned to Riza and Havoc, who had both stepped up to join him in his deliberation of the beast. "I'd say rabbit, fawn, and something else…but I can't tell what the other thing is."

Havoc shook his head. "I have no idea. That thing is damn weird." He stared at the being in question a moment longer and then turned away with a shudder. "I don't like it, whatever it is."

Riza had a more analytical approach. She frowned at it a moment, deliberating. "Collie," she ventured at last. It reminded her strongly of the one she'd owned as a teenager. The bushy tail and the ruff around its neck, and the color of said features pointed to this as a logical explanation, and it would also account for the teeth.

The creature shrieked again and butted its head up against the bars of the cage.

"Sick bastard," Roy muttered, turning away from the ghastly monstrosity. He diverted his attention to the rest of the room. Aside from the wall of cages, there was a low table, covered in papers, presumably more research and experiments, along with a few books. On the opposite wall, several dozen crates were stacked in high columns. Disturbing spider web patterns of transmutation circles that Roy had never seen before were drawn on every available surface of both the walls and floors. Triangles and carefully measured angles overlapping, sigils for elements that couldn't be combined without an explosion imbricated together, and Roy concluded, just by looking at the designs, that whoever had drawn them was insane.

Falman moved towards the table, picking up and inspecting one of the books that lay open, pages smudged with grubby fingerprints. It was a book on animal anatomy. He flipped through a few pages, inspecting the diagrams of canine bone structure, notes scribbled in the sidelines. **_Calcium _**, one said, gone over several times and underlined. Falman, not being an alchemist and knowing very little in the area of science and the like, had no idea what significance it held and he moved on. A few more books on animal anatomy, several pages of notes dedicated to the subject. Falman paused, fingers tracing the lettering on one particularly abused book. The words were stained and faded, hardly legible, but when the man flipped open the cover, the title page was clearly visibly with bold dark print.

_ The Human Composition.  
_

"Sir?" Roy turned, but barely had time to spare the cover a glance, features paling considerably at the possibilities that book implied before another voice interrupted.

"Boss!" It was Havoc's voice, drifting out from behind one of the stacks of boxes. Soon after, there was a startled yelp and a grunt from Havoc. "There's a dog back here." He stated, and it was soon followed by a loud thump. "Shit!"

Roy could only watch in horror as two of the crate stacks began to sway and rock, tilting dangerously before tipping back into a safe position and then doing it again, this time, overbalancing.

"COLONEL!"

Riza grabbed his arm, yanking him out of the way and the two retreated to a safe distance as the crates toppled to the floor, several splitting open. Thousand of little brown bits scattered across the floor, burying several of the bodies that already occupied the space. Breathing hard, Roy bent to pick up a handful of the stuff.

"Dog food?" He tossed the bits back onto the pile.

"Well, he'd have to feed them something." Riza stated, making a vague gesture towards the floor. Poor damned beasts; they wouldn't need food anymore.

Roy moved forward, careful not to slip in the kibble and navigated his way through the splintered bits of wood. "Second Lieutenant." He wasn't pleased with the mishap and his voice was clipped and annoyed. "Havoc!"

"I'm okay," came the reply, and though he sounded a bit shaky, he didn't seem to be harmed. He appeared from behind another stack, arms filled with a wriggling bundle of fur. "It's just a pup."

The little thing squirmed, squealing awfully, clearly terrified of the human contact, and Roy tried to wrap his mind around what could have happened to the unfortunate thing to cause such reaction. It didn't looked harmed though, it was chubby and fluffy, gray and white fur glossy in the light and it looked to be well fed and taken care of, though a bit dirty.

After a few moments in which it flailed and yelped, gnawing at Havoc's arm to be set free, the puppy, realizing that he was not being hurt, calmed down and settled in the soldier's arms.

Havoc gave them a lopsided grin and reached into his pocket with one hand. He extracted a cigarette and put it to his lips, but looked forlorn when he could find no way to light a match one handed. He looked to Roy, helplessly. "Help a guy out?"

Roy regarded his pleasing look with disdain. "Smoke on your own time," he said peevishly. Havoc looked dejectedly between the matches in one hand and the puppy in the other.

"Damnit, you're a pain in my ass already," he told the whelp, jolting it a bit when he shifted his grip on the puppy so he wouldn't drop it. The dog panted noisily at him and gave him a small wag of his tail.


	3. 3 Change

* * *

It was Hawkeye who first noticed that something was off. Something about the way Havoc was casting a double shadow, even though there was only one light at the right angle to be able to reach him through the maze of stacked crates. Perhaps it was the way the second shadow was crouched and thick instead of being lean and long like the first one. 

Whatever the reason was that call that crucial detail into her attention, the fact was that she noticed it too late. By the time she'd give a startled cry, the first tendrils of alchemical power had crept up from the array painted on the floor. And by the time she'd raised her gun, the bright purples sparks of the reaction had swallowed both Havoc and the puppy whole.

"Stand down!" Roy yelled, grabbing her arm before she could take proper aim at the spot where she'd seen the ungainly shadow, hoping to hit the culprit and stop what was going on before it could do too much damage. She gave Roy a startled look when he prevented her from doing so.

"If you shoot," he offered by way of explanation, "you disrupt the reaction. If you do that, we don't know what's happening in there, and it's possible that Havoc could die."

She blanched at the statement, and he kept a firm grip on her wrist, feeling it tremble ever so slightly in his clutches and they could do nothing but watch the flashing display, not knowing what transformations were occurring on the other side of the light.

They were the longest, most excruciatingly painful three minutes and six seconds of Roy's like. One hundred and eighty-six seconds of standing, absolutely helpless on the outside of a chaotic, yet perfectly controlled scientific reaction and able to do nothing to rescue his loyal comrade trapped within.

He bounced on the balls of his feet and an involuntary strained noise struggled up from within his throat. Roy couldn't have stopped himself from making that noise if he'd tried, but as it was, he did not even realize he'd made it. At some point, Falman had joined them, though neither of the higher ranking officers could have pinpointed exactly when that had been, all of their attention focused ahead of them.

At last, after what seemed like an unbridled reaction gone out of control, the sparks began to die down, the light fading into distant flickers and Roy let go of Riza's wrist.

It took her less than three seconds for her to have her gun trained at it's target, who was now visible over the rim of light. The last of the embers flickered and died, and one Alicia Cram, local alchemist and all around nut-case stood up, grin cracking evilly across her face.

"Don't. Move." Riza had a will of steel, Roy decided, giving her a look of admiration. His first move had been to look to Havoc, who was lying on the floor, curled into himself, but he was breathing and not dead, not dead, thank GOD he was still alive. But it was Falman who reached their fallen comrade first and there was a bat-shit insane lady grin beneath gun-point to deal with, so Roy figured that Havoc could wait just a moment more.

She raised her hands into the air without complaint, but Roy still felt the need to raise his hand threateningly, fingers pressed together in warning. She eyed him, lips quirking onto a cruel smile that sent a chill down Roy's spine and laughed in his face. Tilter her head back and laughed until she could barely breathe.

How did one deal with an insane person?

Luckily, Hawkeye had it under control, so Roy had nothing to do but to offer back up and moral support to his indissoluble cohort. She sidestepped, slowly circling so that she was standing, not in front of her enemy, but to the side. "On your knees. Slowly"

Under the scrutiny of the gun's grinning barrel, Alicia dropped ho her knees, the thud echoing painfully in the room, but the grin never left her face, the gleam in her eye that spoke of something they she knew and they did not twisting disconcertedly in Roy's stomach and he pressed his fingers a little tighter together.

"Now," and Roy had probably never been so glad in his life that he was not Hawkeye's enemy, "I want you to lay, facedown, hands up over your head. If you as much as twitch, I'll shoot you in the head."

You're all monsters," she spat, falling to the ground as instructed, and Roy rolled his eyes. Yet another nutter with a military vendetta. Probably a state-alchemist wannabe who hadn't been up to par or from a town that had been somehow wronged by the military in the past. Roy didn't particularly care to know which; he'd heard them all before.

"Rather fond of broad generalizations, are we?" One dark eyebrow arched and she lifted her head as high as she could and spat at him.

"Whether you initially chose to be or not, the military makes you what they want you to be. Monsters."

Hawkeye moved to stand above her, and she lifted on foot, her boot crushing down firmly, but not cruelly between the woman's shoulder blades…just to be sure. She bent down, fishing a pair of handcuffs from her belt.

"Then what are these….things that you've made…I think they more qualify as monsters than any of us ever will." Roy relaxed imperceptibly as Hawkeye restrained Alicia's hands and he lowered his hand and used it to gesture towards the row of cages where the surviving creatures continued to pace or moan or do whatever it was that they were doing, unable to do anything more, condemned to a life filled with awkward pain and frightened looks. Most likely, they would be put down. It would be inhumane to keep them.

"What I've made," she spat, cheek pressed roughly against the cool floor, "are innovations. Creatures beyond imagination. Of course there'd have to be some trial and error, but think of the applications it could bring. Imagine being able to blend any two creatures at will. The redistribution of senses alone could be monumental."

"I still fail to see the practicality of it." Roy could only picture things such as the animals behind him, grossly disfigured and of no use to anyone. Even if there were benefits to wild genetic crossings and mutations, the trial and error and probability of failure were too high to be worth the trouble.

"Just think," and here, she sneered again, shifting a bit to took up at Roy, "humans are animals too."

She glanced towards the other two occupants of the room. Roy followed her gaze. Falman was kneeling over Havoc, who had yet to move. He was still rather obscure, just a dark form on the floor, but in just another minute, Roy would attend to him, get him whatever medical help he needed. A raw ache started up in the pit of his stomach and he was suddenly very suspicious of Alicia's previous statement, especially when he suddenly noticed that the puppy Havoc had formerly been holding onto was nowhere to be found.

"Give a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Dog of the Military' eh?" She chortled with glee and Roy felt sick. He looked at Havoc again, and Riza must have too, because he suddenly heard the crackle of alchemy and by the time he'd turned back, Alicia was on her side, hands, still behind her back, pressed to another array on the floor and the floor was erupting beneath them.

His first thought was to wonder why Riza hadn't shot her yet, but that was probably because the first thing the alchemist had done was to cause the floor to curl into tendrils that had wrapped around Riza's feet sending her off her balance and causing her to fall over onto the floor. The gun skittered across the concrete and lodged itself against the first thing it ran into, a dead cat some nine feet off. Too far to reach.

"You're all the fucking same," she snarled, and Roy cursed, stumbling as the floor rose beneath her command and he tried to avoid the concrete grip, "You jump through hoops on command, begging the military for a little acknowledgement or a scrap of meat. Like dogs whimpering for a pat on their heads from their master. Do you honestly think they keep you around for anything other then their own personal use? Bloodhounds, boarhounds, retrievers, lap dogs, alchemists…what's the difference? You're all SO well trained, you wouldn't even THINK of disobeying orders."

One of the cement vines caught Roy's pant leg and started to curl its way around his ankle, but before it could get halfway around, the reaction suddenly died and Roy's world was consisted of sound and a lapse of light and it took him a full minute to discern exactly what had happened.

"How's THAT for disobeying orders?" Riza was panting, a bit, the gun in her hand still smoking. Roy glanced to Alicia, blood oozing slowly from the hole in her temple and shook his head. He hated casualties, and tried to avoid them, but when it turned violent as this confrontation had, they didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

And the woman had been stupid enough to assume that Riza carried only one gun.

Or perhaps the mistake had been in assuming that the soldier wouldn't use it.

Roy kicked the restraint at his leg away and strode over to the blonde woman, helping her break the stone that curled around her ankles. Thankfully, in her haste, the less talented alchemist had neglected thickness of the tendrils in favor of faster growth, so they were not too difficult to destroy and escape from. If the woman had been given more time, perhaps Roy and Riza would have been in trouble, but the entirety of their alchemical fight has lasted maybe 30 seconds or so.

No matter, it was over and they no longer had to worry about her, so Roy immediately turned his attention to more important things.

At first it looked as if Havoc had simply been knocked unconscious. Roy took his pulse, and it was strong, if not a bit fast and his breathing was normal. But Roy could not shake the words from his head, and he quickly found the subtle and no-so-subtle changes in his comrade. He brushed a gloved finger over one of the ears, mostly gray with a small patch of white at the tip and drew back quickly when the ear twitched, flicking ever so briefly and then settling back into place. He was basically the same _shape_ at least, though he did look a bit stockier, and his limbs looked as if they'd been shortened and shifted slightly. There was a light dusting of fur over his forearms, and Roy almost winced at the change in his fingers.

His fingernails had disappeared, replaced by blunt canine claws. They protruded from the tips of his fingers in the same way dogs' nails were attached to their paws. His thumbs had shortened, the joint moving closer to his wrists, much of its previous usefulness and mobility was lost in the change.

"Sir." Roy received a nudge in the ribs, courtesy of Falman and when the higher ranked officer turned, the white haired man pointed at a gray and white scrap of fur lying parallel with the curve of Havoc's back.

"A tail," Roy murmured, but his voice was lost beneath the sudden shift of Hawkeye's boots and her gun clicked as she cocked it, yet again. There was a shuffle of feet outside the door and an instant later, Breda kicked it open, gun drawn and raised. Fuery followed behind, his weapon was drawn as well, but he was trembling so badly that he couldn't have hit his mark if he'd tried. That is, if, in his haste, he hadn't forgotten to take the safety off first. As it was, Fuery was rather harmless and as soon as Breda realized that there was no immediate assurance of certain death to any of his teammates, dropped his gun to his side and slid it back into its holster.

The two new arrivals took a moment to take in the surrounding scene. Roy watched as they discovered the yammering hybrids in the row of cages and the fallen perpetrator and finally they turned querying expressions to Roy.

With a thought to Havoc's dignity, Roy quickly took off his jacket and threw it over the blonde, taking care to pull it up around the man's new ears.

"What happened here?" Breda asked finally when no explanation was immediately forthcoming. He nudged at a dead bird with his boot.

"I'll explain later." Roy brushed Breda off as subtly and kindly as possible. He stood and, with a grunt, lifted Havoc and started towards the door. When he reached it, he turned. "Hawkeye, I'll need you to drive. The rest of you, stay here and start with the cleanup. I'll call for back up."

They nodded and Riza joined Mustang at the door. He noted that she walked with a slight limp. He thought briefly of the concrete restraints wound tightly around her ankle. Perhaps she had twisted something when she fell. "Lieutenant?" He questioned softly, words intended for her alone. He shifted Havoc in his grip and the man_ whined_.

"I'm fine, Sir," she stated briskly, brushing past him. He followed behind her and watched her gait carefully, but he did not see the limp again and knew that she must be going to great lengths to hide it from him.

When they reached the car, he put Havoc in the back seat, sprawled out across the back. He shut the door carefully and climbed into the front seat. Hawkeye started the car, but did not yet take her foot off the brake. She gave him a questioning glace and he shook his head.

"The hospital can't do anything for him…and he won't be of any use to the military. We'll report him injured and I'll put in a request for sick leave." He half turned, giving a glance at the back-seat passenger.

"And until we can figure out how to fix him?" She might not, perhaps, agree with everything her commanding officer did, but she would not question. Follow, protect, and push him to the top. Her job was very clear, and at this moment, she just needed to trust.

"My house." He said and the car lurched into gear and turned out into the street.

* * *


	4. 4 Worry

* * *

There was a slight shuffle in the driveway when Roy realized that the door was locked and he had no free hands with which to fish the keys out of his pocket. He felt uncharacteristically awkward, asking Riza to do it for him, but she complied, sliding her fingers nonchalantly into his pants and extracting the key without protest or incident. The door swung open with a light creak and Roy strode deftly across the cluttered room. He pushed some magazines and a few crumpled food wrappers off the cushions of the couch and settled Havoc onto to the newly cleared furniture. 

"Hawkeye," he turned to her, "get his jacket off and check his vitals again, I'm going to go call for backup."

She nodded and he left the room. It took him a minute to look up the number (he rarely called work from home, though, they called him a lot) and informed them of the situation, where to go, and what could be expected when they arrived on the scene.

Having done that, he returned to the living room and joined Hawkeye. She glanced up at him and turned back to Havoc. "Everything's normal, Sir," _as normal as it can be, in this situation…_ "we just have to wait for him to wake up."

Roy nodded, ran his hand through his hair and glanced around the room. It was a mess. Roy never had company (they always insisted on inviting him to their place, and Roy never complained) and he was, essentially, a bachelor. And, as typical of most bachelors, he was a slob. He made a note to clean up a bit later. For now, however, he simply ignored the clutter and turned back to Riza. "Do you want some coffee?"

Riza nodded, stood, and followed her commanding officer to the kitchen. This room was slightly cleaner than the living room, but there was still a sink full of unwashed dishes and the floor hadn't been swept in ages. He offered Riza a chair at the table and set about making the coffee. When he'd wrestled the filter into submission and the liquid was happily percolating on the sideboard, he sat down to wait with her.

The conversation was awkward, to say the least, neither of them quite sure of what to say. They were both accustomed to interacting on a strictly processional basis, and in the situation they were in, small talk seemed rather inappropriate.

"How's your ankle?" he asked at last, shifting in his seat a bit. On the sideboard, the coffee pot ceased its gurgling and Roy stood, moving to pour two cups. He brought them over to the table and then went to fetch the milk and sugar. Riza took only a bit of milk with hers while Roy tilted several spoonfuls of sugar into his cup and topped it off with a splash of milk. He liked his coffee sweet.

"It's fine." She replied, sipping at the drink he'd provided for her. She paused a moment, extending her leg and flexing her ankle experimentally. Roy watched her face carefully, but only managed to catch the briefest of winces when she pointed her toes. "I'll be fine."

"You should have that checked out." Roy said, smirking over his cup. He wasn't buying her act, and knew it had to hurt quite a bit for her to show _anything_ on her face. His lips twitched as she sniffed and pointed her nose, just a bit, and he could tell that she was miffed about having been called on her lie.

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, there came a sudden crash from the other room and both occupants of the kitchen started. Roy was on his feet two seconds later and Riza was right behind them. Their coffee sat abandoned on the table and the two rushed down the hall and into the other room.

At first, Roy doesn't see anything. The living room is completely empty and exactly as it was before they went to the kitchen, but then Roy realizes… I the living room is completely empty /I . He stared at the couch, as if he is unwilling to believe that Havoc is no long there.

Riza nudged him in the side and points off to the right. Roy knew that he'd left the coat closet too ajar when he'd hunt up his jacket earlier, but he was damn positive that he hadn't left it gaping wide open. He frowned and stepped forward, only to have a monster explode from the depths, bowling him over and pinning him to the ground.

"GRAHH!" Roy flailed helplessly beneath the weight, but whatever it was, the thing was lying directly on top of him and, incidentally, covering his face; so the Colonel could see nothing. All he knew was that whatever was attacking him didn't seem to be doing a very good job of causing harm. All it seemed to be doing was wiggling around a lot.

And then, Roy felt the first swipe of a wet pink tongue dragging across his cheek.

* * *


End file.
